Review: Artemis

Artemis by Andy Weir

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Ever had a bad day?

Try having one on the moon...

WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon. Population 2,000. Mostly tourists. Some criminals.

Jazz Bashara is one of the criminals. She lives in a poor area of Artemis and subsidises her work as a porter with smuggling contraband onto the moon. But it's not enough. So when she's offered the chance to make a lot of money she jumps at it.

But though planning a crime in 1/6th gravity may be more fun, it's a lot more dangerous.

So, where to start? Well firstly Artemis does have a good plot, piss poorly executed, but good. The main problem for me is that our protagonist, Jazz Bashara, is supposed to be a Saudi, Muslim woman brought up in Artemis who works as a part-time porter and full time smuggler yet her inner voice (and outer voice for that matter) sound exactly like Mark Watney the white, American, male, science dude from Weir's previous novel, The Martian. Secondly the story is written in the same manner as The Martian, understandable as it's the same author, but it really doesn't work for what is at its essence a heist story.

Anyway enough about the story, Rosario Dawson, (Ahsoka Tano in The Madalorian and Claire Temple/Night Nurse in the Netflix Marvel series) narrates the story. As far as I can tell this is her first outing as an audiobook narrator and to some extent it shows. Her reading of the story is competent enough but a little dry for some of the high octane action scenes. It's the dialogue where she shines as is only to be expected of an actress of her quality.

Honestly I didn't enjoy this book but looking at the reviews on Goodreads many others have. If my opinion is important to you I'd say give it a miss but I'll let you decide.

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Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

You can’t stop the future.

You can’t rewind the past.

The only way to learn the secret... is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush, who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a first-hand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

Like many I first became aware of the novel through the Netflix series and being of a curious mind I decided to give it a read. Firstly I'd like to point out that I really don't think I'm the target audience for this story which to my mind can only be a good thing... more on this later...

I'd like to address the two central characters first, Clay Jensen and Hannah Baker. Well as I said I'm not the desired audience for this and found one to be a super earnest, weight of the world on my sixteen year old shoulders type while the other is a everything is awful and someone else's fault type. Neither of these characters is much more than a vehicle for a "woe is me" narrative. Am I being unfair? Yeah, probably but it's my review and if you don't like it click away dear friend.

Now on to the story itself; while competently written I feel that it while not glorifying suicide per se doesn't make any effort at all to say that there just may be different options. If just one of the characters given a voice said anything, anything at all, about this I might feel differently about the story... but they don't. I was actually a little surprised to find that the author, Jay Asher is a middle-aged guy and not an angst ridden tween.

The only ray of light I can offer in this negative review is that the narrators on the Audible version are very good and both give a sterling performance

So, there you have it, my review. As you may be able to discern from my oh so subtle hints I didn't like this book, not one little bit. Read it if you want to, I'm not your Mum, but I really do not recommend it.

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Review: Chalk

Chalk by Paul Cornell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paul Cornell plumbs the depths of magic and despair in Chalk, a brutal exploration of bullying in 80s England.

Andrew Waggoner has always hung around with his fellow losers at school, desperately hoping each day that the school bullies, led by Drake, will pass him by in search of other prey. But one day they force him into the woods, and the bullying escalates into something more; something unforgivable; something unthinkable.

Broken, both physically and emotionally, something dies in Waggoner, and something else is born in its place.

In the hills of the West Country a chalk horse stands vigil over a site of ancient power, and there Waggoner finds in himself a reflection of rage and vengeance, a power and persona to topple those who would bring him low.

From Tom Brown's School Days to Carrie via Lord of the Flies children casually inflicting horrors on each other has been a mainstay of literature for a long, long, time. Chalk takes this and weave a gripping tale of magic and vengeance. Our protagonist is Andrew Waggoner, one of those kids destined to be seen as a punching bag by the school's bullies, who after a particularly terrible attack leaves him disfigured finds he can't go to the ineffective adults of the story... after all snitches get stitches as the saying goes.

In pain, fear, and desperation Waggoner calls out to a much older, darker power who surprisingly answers. It's from here that Chalk really hits its stride.

The calm, almost matter of fact way Johnathan Broadbent narrates the story only makes Cornell's horror the more riveting. For me it was this dry, emotionless delivery that really made the story hit home. This isn't a mile a minute kind of story so when the action does ramp up and get a bit frenetic it makes it all the more effective. Anyway I'm finding it tough to put into words exactly what I liked about this so I'll wrap up. Read this book, better yet get the audio version like I did and have a man with a mellow Wiltshire accent tell you one of the most horrific stories I've ever heard.

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